The Urban Project of the Year 2023 was won by the renovated southern part of the lake in Most

Prague - The Urban Project of the Year 2023 award was won by the territorial study of the renovated southern part of the lake in Most. This was announced today by representatives of the Foundation for the Development of Architecture and Building, which has been organizing the award ceremony for the ninth year. Architectural groups gogolák+grasse.s.r.o. worked on the design. The planners will connect a part of the city with the lake and its surrounding landscape on the site of a former quarry. The client was the statutory city of Most.

In the center of the new urban development, the relocated Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is to be located. The judges praised the idea of renovating the area devastated by mining activities. Whether the composition of the project will be preserved, they say, mainly depends on the willingness of the investors who should start building here.

"The successful study is a great challenge for us. The reclamation of this area has been very successful, and it is a location that has a lot to offer. This location even caught the interest of the Olympic Committee, and next year an Olympic festival will take place at the site of this project," said the mayor of Most, Marek Hrvol (ProMOST).

In 1965, the demolition of the old town of Most began due to extensive mining activities. Over the next ten years, most of the monuments, including twenty Gothic houses, were razed to the ground. Such a number of late medieval monuments had previously only existed in the territory of the capital city of Prague. The demolitions ended in 1987. In 1971, a decision was made to relocate the late Gothic Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The actual relocation began in 1975 and lasted nearly a month. The church was moved almost 850 meters, and it was a unique global event that led to the preservation of this monument from the first half of the 16th century.

"The entire study is accompanied by an interesting story. Life can return to this place, which was destroyed due to mining, and we hope that this study will be the first chapter of a new page for the city of Most," added Hrvol.

This year, 18 projects competed for the award. Five special awards were also presented:

Ministry of Trade and Industry Award - Bekon Area

Union of Towns and Municipalities Award – Territorial Study Sedlice

National Center for Construction 4.0 Award – Teplátor

Award for Transportation Solutions for the Revitalization of Part of the Brownfield – Ostrava - Přívoz pre-railway area Moravian-Silesian Region

Czech Association of Civil Engineers Award – Territorial Study Pardubice - Červeňák